Before taking up filmmaking, Agnès Godard spent a long time going through each of the photographs that her recently deceased father had left scattered around. With them, Agnès inherited, in addition to memories, a way of looking at the world and, after abandoning journalism for film school, she began her career by working alongside a certain Wim Wenders. With that first step he had already achieved more than ninety percent of the world’s filmmakers. And that being so, in 1980, some of the most important surnames of the seventh art had already passed in front of his camera; those surnames that don’t need a name. Between filming and shooting, the influence of destiny and also Claire Denis appeared to change everything and to form, together with Agnès, a tandem, still enduring, that would change the rules of the game and merge two of the most prodigious careers of the seventh art. It was the beginning of a torrent of lights, portraits, scenes, shots and liberties that still make us tremble in our seats. Anyone who has seen the dance scene in 35 Rhums or the choreography of the bodies in Beau Travail will know this.
“In my case, it is the directors who have asked me to work with them again and, either because of my shyness or because of the way I am, I have never dared to ask anyone to hire me”.
Agnès Godard, 61FICX Award of Honour
But it is not only Claire Denis who has used Agnès Godard’s eyes to find the glimpses of her negatives; Ursula Meier, Catherine Corsini, Agnès Varda and André Téchiné also realised early on that there was only one way to turn their works into something greater: to have Agnès close to them. Each of the films in which she has participated, even in her transition to digital, are a testament to a unique and incomparable vision. That vision which, as she confesses: “always starts from a single image, from a first impulse, a twist of the wrist, which then has to be released”.
This being so, we could name any of her more than fifty works to fill in gaps and highlight times, but we would not be being fair to her work, nor to her truth. If we take a closer look at her films, those in which she wears the name DOP (Director of Photography) on her waistcoat, it will be easier to understand how through the influence of her optics even the most insipid films have captured unforgettable moments. Someone who knows a lot about this once told me: “With Agnès it’s very easy to teach a class. All you have to do is show one of her films and ask the students to look at the screen”. He couldn’t have said it better.
“I believe in the image as an element of the mise-en-scène that participates in the narrative and in the film in general. Whatever the film, if there is a taste for risk, if someone dares to capture the penumbra, it is worthy of my admiration”.
Agnès Godard, 61FICX Award of Honour
Yesterday’s presentation by Albert Serra of the 61FICX Award of Honour was a well-deserved honour to a woman committed to society and to cinema. A woman who has turned her perspective into a symbol.
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